Meet Urban Anthropologist Dr Idalina Baptista

Dr Idalina Baptista is an Associate Professor in Urban Anthropology (a joint appointment with the School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography). She brings to the Department an impressive diversity of international teaching and research experience.

Idalina teaches on our Master's in Sustainable Urban Development and is an Associate Fellow of the Oxford Programme for the Future of Cities and the Institute for Science, Innovation and Society (InSIS). Her previous experience includes urban planning and environmental management at the University of California, Berkeley, the New University of Lisbon, Universidade Aberta, and Universidade Atlantica, in Portugal.

'My work operates at the intersection of urban theory and governance theory, investigating the geographical sites of knowledge production, what it means to govern the city, how different forms of infrastructure governance emerge and the patterns of urbanisation, citizens, and livelihoods they engender.'

Her latest research project, Electric Urbanism: the Governance of Electricity in Urban Africa, examines how utilities prepayment systems may be a socially and politically acceptable model of service delivery in poorly resourced and highly informalized urban areas of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA).

She recently concluded a research project focused on notions of urban flexibility in governing cities undergoing processes of reconstruction after a disaster or coping with situations of endemic crisis in Africa and the Caribbean.

Through these projects, Idalina continuously seeks to deepen her understanding of urban theory, urban governance, urban livelihoods, energy infrastructure and transnational comparative research, especially between Africa, Latin America and Southern Europe. Her work has been published in the International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Urban Studies, Urban Geography, and City & Society.

'I'm excited to join the Master's team at a time when the Department is expanding the teaching and research activities on urban studies. While there are many researchers at Oxford interested in what happens in cities, here at the MSUD we are also interested in cities themselves. The combination of the two makes this a stimulating environment to work in.'

Outside her teaching and research, Idalina is involved in a number of extra-curricular activities, including the Oxford City Farm, an organization which seeks to engage local people with the processes of food production and promote healthy eating and local food, and the Porch Steppin' Stone Centre, a charity which provides day-long support for homeless and vulnerably housed people.

She also fences with the Oxford University Fencing Club at intermediate level.

Published 3 November 2013